Changing the future of animals and lives of people

Debra Erickson is Director of Communications
and Interpretation, at San Diego Zoo Global. She has the best job in the zoo as
she oversees eight different areas and is involved in an array of tasks from
exhibit design to advertising campaigns and works for three different
institutions. Debra kindly agreed to share her experience and insight of one of
the best zoos in the world.

WAZA:
Have you always worked in the zoo industry or what
brought you to the zoo world?

Debra:
I was a girl scout through high school and spent a lot of time outdoors. I
became very familiar with the wildlife in the Olympic Mountains and majored in
biology in undergraduate school. I was planning on becoming a field biologist
but after a season in the field, working most of the day by myself on small
rodents, I realized I couldn't work in the wilderness for months on end with very
little contact with others. I then decided to become a teacher and to help support
myself while obtaining my credential; I started working as a tour guide at
SeaWorld San Diego. I was hooked. I quit teaching in the traditional classroom
and have since worked at SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari
Park, and Atlantis, Paradise Island. I have left the industry three times to
work in the beer, semiconductor, and orang-utan and rain forest conservation
fields, but always returned to zoos and aquariums.

WAZA: Is Communication in the zoo world very different from any other industry?
What makes it special?

Debra: I
believe that the basics of an excellent communications program are the same in
any industry. I used to joke when people asked me how I could move from an
aquarium to a zoo: "The job is the same, only the animals' names have been
changed." What makes us different are two things: We change the future of
animal species in which we work and we change the lives of the people that
visit our institutions. San Diego Zoo Global has successfully bred more than
165 endangered species and has reintroduced over 30 species back to the wild. I
have watched the zoo over more than 25 years take a species which only numbered
22, and prevent its extinction. The California condor now numbers almost 400
individuals and it is flying free in California, Arizona, and Baja California.
When I went out to see the last three condors in the wild before they were
brought into the zoo, I went because I wasn't certain that they would return to
the wild. We helped make it happen.

We
also touch people's lives in so many ways. Numerous employees that now work at
the zoo were inspired to work at the zoo after attending summer school classes
as children. Hundreds of people have shared their stories with me on their
first visit to the San Diego Zoo as a child. And we continue to make a
difference every day. For almost 20 years we have brought animals to visit
children in local hospitals each month. Just in the last few months we have
changed the life of an autistic child that attended our summer camp program and
we gave severely wounded war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan the first
opportunity for a moment outside of the hospital with their family. This was
done before opening hours due to their post-traumatic stress syndrome. No one
involved will ever forget the expressions on the veterans' and their children's
faces. In summary, we provide hope for endangered species, a pathway to science
careers for children, and life-long lasting memories for our millions of
guests.

WAZA: Could you
describe your main duties at San Diego Zoo?

Debra: I oversee the daily
marketing, communications, and interpretation functions for the San Diego Zoo,
San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research. I have the
best job at the Zoo since I am involved in everything from designing exhibits
and developing advertising campaigns to creating marketing strategies and
testing new technologies.

What do you
like & dislike the most in your role?

I receive great
rewards daily by mentoring my team members, raising awareness of the plight of endangered
species, and giving people of all ages a once in a lifetime experience with the
animals in our collection. One of my biggest challenges is the propensity
people have for exclusively communicating on e-mail. Face-to-face (leave your
desk!) discussions, lunch meetings (break the bread!), and even phone calls
should be used for communicating important or contentious matters.

WAZA: Could you
describe us a typical working day?

Debra: The wonderful thing
about my job is that there is no typical day. Since I oversee eight different
areas: interpretation, PR and social media, design, digital communications,
e-Learning, advertising, publications, and photo and video services, days are
full of fun, variety, and challenges. On a recent day, I conducted my weekly update
meeting with my managers where we developed an outline for a return on mission
presentation. Then I met with our instructional designer to review the progress
on the instructional design of an elephant management module. Next, I
facilitated a meeting for our spring promotion, Play Days, working with my team
along with operations and animal care staff. My next task was board of directors
conference call for Endangered Species Day, a follow-up call with an official
from US Fish and Wildlife Service, and then a final review of the front gate
signage package for the zoo before it was sent out for bid. I spent the end of
the day typing meeting minutes and trying to catch up on e-mail.

WAZA: Do you work
closely with the educators' team? How would you define
the relationship with them?

Debra: I started my career
in education as a tour guide at SeaWorld San Diego and was education director
at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and SeaWorld of Orlando. I am very fortunate
to work with two education directors that I have known for over 25 years. We
have successfully worked together to define the roles of education vs.
interpretation. Interpretation is responsible for developing themes, messages,
interpretive signs and interactive elements, training materials, fact sheets,
e-Learning modules, and evaluation plans for all new exhibits and then provides
this information to education. Education creates and implements all
guest-facing programs. We work together as a team to implement an interpretive
audit program that involves management team members (including food service,
merchandise, operations, and animal care) auditing more than half of our
offerings each year. Audits are used to help us continually improve the guest
experience.

WAZA: What was your biggest challenge and achievement since you joined the
zoo?

Debra: The
biggest challenge and the achievement are the same, co-leading the internal San
Diego Zoo Global team and managing the agency in the rebranding effort for the
Zoo. We were able to accomplish the following:

a.
Rename the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park
to San Diego Zoo Safari Park. This allows us to more easily communicate the
differences between the zoo and the Safari Park. People outside of San Diego
County didn't understand what a Wild Animal Park was and why, if they visited
the world-famous San Diego Zoo, they needed to visit the Wild Animal Park.
Safari Park says it all: You go to the Safari Park to take one of a variety of
safaris.

b.
Rename the organization from Zoological
Society of San Diego to San Diego Zoo Global: Individuals had an impossible
time remembering the corporate name of the organization. San Diego Zoo Global
connotes that we are a zoo that works around the world.

c.
Rename Center for the Reproduction of
Endangered Species or CRES to San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation
Research. Individuals couldn't remember what the acronym stood for and we were
able to associate our conservation and research function with our well-known
brand, San Diego Zoo.

d.
Create the San Diego Zoo Wildlife
Conservancy, a program and name that helps us communicate that we are more than
a zoo; we are a wildlife conservation organization.

WAZA: How was the "San Diego Zoo Global" brand built? Would you say that it is an easy understandable brand?

Debra: The
San Diego Zoo is 95 years old and has a 50% unaided recognition and 87% aided
recognition in the United States. The brand was built over the years by
developing world-class exhibits and providing an unforgettable guest experience
in conjunction with executing an extremely well-crafted communications
strategy. The organization continues to invest in growing recognition for the
organization. Our public relations efforts generate over 600 million
impressions each year and our website is usually one of the 5,000 most visited
sites on the Internet. We continue to innovate and test new tactics to build
awareness not only for our brand and the zoo but for our conservation work in
35 countries around the world. In the last year our conservation efforts have
been featured by many major media outlets including the BBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Bloomberg
News, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

WAZA: Is San Diego Zoo involved in the Decade on Biodiversity? If yes what
is the mission of the Communication department for this Decade?

Debra: The
San Diego Zoo is investigating the possibilities of becoming involved in the
Decade of Biodiversity. I attended my first WAZA meeting last June and, as part
of our five-year interpretive plan we are currently updating, we are trying to
determine how we can best become involved in the initiative.

WAZA: Do you think this project is a
marketing opportunity for San Diego Zoo? And for the whole zoo and aquariums
community?

Debra: When I was working for Busch Entertainment
Corporation in 1997, the parent group for the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Parks,
I led a project where we partnered with a variety of conservation groups
including The Nature Conservancy and US Fish and Wildlife Service to partner
with Pizza Hut, on a program to raise awareness of biodiversity. Pizza Hut at
the time had been conducting the Book It! Program in the US for over 12 years,
a reading and rewards project, and reached millions of children. We thought we
could effectively raise the awareness of biodiversity nationwide through the
Book It! program and associated communications during a two-year effort. This
included a national contest to develop a symbol of biodiversity that we were
hoping would end up being adopted nationwide. The results were in year 2 we had
over 22 million children in almost 900,000 schools participate. The reading
program itself was a great success but overall understanding of biodiversity
didn't rise after two years with the theme and we were unable to get any
traction for the adoption of the biodiversity symbol despite the involvement of
over five international and national conservation organizations.

Unfortunately, biodiversity is a word that
most individuals don't understand and the word itself is a barrier to
communicating its importance. I don't see biodiversity as a marketing
opportunity. I feel if we effectively market the zoo, people will come and then
we will share the concept of biodiversity with them during their visit.

WAZA: What do you think is the most important quality for a Communication/ Marketing person in the zoo industry?

Debra: I
believe integrity is the most important quality that a communications
professional must possess. We need to ensure that we communicate accurate
information in an unbiased manner. We are responsible for delivering messages
on a wide-variety of sensitive issues from climate change and evolution to the
bush meat trade and culling in captivity and the wild. We have the duty to
present both sides of an issue clearly, with correct data to corroborate our
positions.

WAZA: Do you foresee any big changes in the zoo industry on the
marketing/communication point of view?

Debra: I
believe the major challenge that we will be facing over the next few years is
the continued escalation of the animal rights movement. It has already had a
major impact in our industry as some U.S. zoological facilities have made the
decision to no longer display elephants and one facility recently deciding to
send their elephants to a "sanctuary." The activists will continue their work
to remove elephants from all zoological facilities. The activists are also trying
to obtain human rights for non-human primates. In 2008, the Spanish parliament
passed a resolution to provide great apes with the right to life and freedom. In
Spain, great apes can no longer be in a circus, a TV commercial, or film,
though they can still at this time be displayed in zoos. We all need to have
proactive communications plans in place to deal with animal rights issues head
on.